New Ability
Bringing an eight-year-old to SHIELD was always an odd thing. At least when (Y/N) was smaller, he could just drop her off at daycare. However, now he was forced to bring her to his office whenever he was called in on weekends.
(Y/N) didn’t seem to mind. She usually sat in his office at the small desk he had set up for her and drew. The kid was enamored with anything art related, and Coulson was always taking her to art museums when he had time off. She loved every little bit of it. However, he did wish that she had friends her age to play with.
It wasn’t like he didn’t try to get her to invite friends over. He always asked if she wanted to have someone over. Whenever he asked, she would give him a small smile and tell him she didn’t want to invite anyone over.
Whenever he would pick her up from school, she would be standing off by herself while the other kids conversed and had fun. It always troubled him she didn’t make friends, and he wondered if the other kids could sense that (Y/N) was different from them.
He pushed his worry over his daughter’s lack of friends as Agent Garrett walked into his office. Coulson’s eyes flicked over to (Y/N), seeing her stiffen slightly as she noticed who had walked in. She quickly turned to her drawing and seemed to be focusing even more on it.
(Y/N) did not like Agent Garrett, and Coulson couldn’t figure out why. Garrett was a good agent, and he had saved Coulson’s ass more than once out in the field. So, it was odd that (Y/N) didn’t like the guy.
“Oh,” Garrett frowned at the eight-year-old before looking at Coulson. “Um, how exactly are we supposed to talk about sensitive info when there’s a kid in the room?”
“Spanish,” Coulson replied.
Garrett nodded, then began to go in depth of what he had found out about the Red Room. Coulson felt his stomach turn as Garrett told him about the medical testing happening on those poor girls in the program, and he was glad that (Y/N) couldn’t-
“Why are they hurting those girls?”
Both men looked at the girl, eyebrows raised in surprise.
“(Y/N),” Coulson went over to her and kneeled next to the desk. He could see tears in her big eyes, and he realized she had understood everything Garrett had said. “How do you know Spanish?”
“I-“ She frowned in confusion. “It sounded like English, daddy.”
“Pretty sure I was speaking in Spanish.” Garrett muttered. Coulson could see he was staring at (Y/N) as if he were inspecting her.
“Thank you for the report, Garrett.” Coulson got to his feet and headed to the phone on his desk. “You can go.”
“I think I’d like to stay and find out why Coulson Jr. over there knows Spanish without actually knowing Spanish.”
“I said you’re free to go.” Coulson snapped.
Garrett held his hands up in defense, then quietly left the room. Coulson saw how he cast one final look at (Y/N) as if he was trying to figure her out before he left the room.
Coulson called Fury.
“Thought you were handling the report on the Red Room?” Fury growled as he answered the phone.
“There’s a problem,” Coulson murmured. “Garrett was giving the report in Spanish because (Y/N) was in the room…and she understood everything.”
“You taught her Spanish?” Fury snorted.
“No, that’s the problem.” Coulson replied. “She said it sounded like we were speaking English, and…I think it might be another…ability.”
“Looks like we need to run a few tests.”
Coulson groaned, “Nothing invasive-“
Of course not,” Fury cut him off. “We’re just gonna see just how many languages sound like English to the kid. This might explain why she was able to speak in full sentences by the time she was one.”
Coulson sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Thank you, sir.” He hung up, then walked over to (Y/N). She looked up from her drawing, nervously chewing on her bottom lip.
“I’m sorry about listening to the report.” She mumbled.
“It’s alright,” Coulson replied, smoothing her hair back from her face. “Uncle Nick wants to run a few tests and see how many languages you know. It’ll be like a game.”
She nodded, “Okay, daddy. S’long as there’s no shots.”
He chuckled, “I promise.”